Dick Grayson
While he was first known to the superworld as Robin, The Boy Wonder, sidekick to Batman, Dick Grayson has time and time again proven his worth has his own hero, Nightwing. Born into a circus family, Dick Grayson's life was changed forever when his parents were murdered by mobsters in Gotham City for refusing to pay extortion money. Bruce Wayne, who was in the audience that night, saw how the boy's promising life was shattered in an instant the same as his and took the boy in. Like Bruce, Dick became consumed by a desire to find an stop his parents' killer. Recognizing this as the same force that drove him to become the brooding Batman, Bruce begrudgingly helped Dick to confront and stop the man who killed his parents, so that he would not be taken over by vengeance the way Bruce was. Grayson took the identity of Robin, dually after his mother's favorite bird and after his cherished folk hero Robin Hood. They found the mobster responsible for John's and Mary's deaths, and brought him to justice. Batman and Robin were formed, and Robin continued to fight crime by Batman's side. During this time, they would be joined by Batgirl, on whom he had something of a crush, which she returned. For the next three years the three crimefighters continued to fight the likes of The Joker, The Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, The Riddler, and even the international eco-terrorist Ra's al Ghul. Over the years, Bruce and Dick would grow apart, in part from the fact that, at the end of the day, Bruce wasn't Dick's father and had never actually adopted him as such. One summer, rather than continuing to fight crime in Gotham with Batman, Dick left for the west coast and ended up forming the Teen Titans. The team's smash success, both in terms of crime fighting and public awareness, inspired several other teenaged sidekicks to leave their mentors and join the team. This furthered the wedge between Bruce and Dick, causing Bruce, who had found a new Robin in Jason Todd, to all but formally fire Dick from the title of Robin. Inspired by Superman, Dick became his own hero: Nightwing. Dick stays on with the Titans for a while, forming something of a relationship with the Tamaran Starfire, and a close bond with Wally West, sidekick to the Flash, before eventually outgrowing the team and leaving for Blüdhaven, a smaller city neighboring Gotham that was not only profoundly economically depressed and hopeless but as much in need of help as Gotham was before Batman. During this time, though he still refrained from contact with Batman, he resumed communication with Alfred Pennyworth and Barbara, even giving the new Robin pointers from time to time. Nightwing had a profound positive impact on his adoptive city, bringing it out of its depression by inspiring her people and taking down the city's singular ruling mobster, Blockbuster. It was not long after Nightwing's fantastic success that The Joker would kill his successor as Robin, Jason. Still reeling from the bridge burned between them Dick would try to come to his former mentor's aid in his time of need, but still struggled to get close. Eventually, with the help of the boy who, with Dick's blessing, would become the third Robin, Tim Drake, Dick and Bruce would finally close the gap between them and reconcile. From then on, though still technically based in the neighboring Blüdhaven, Dick would join Batman, Robin, and Cassandra Cain, the new Batgirl, to fight super-crime in Gotham once again. After Jason Todd was revealed alive and Bruce Wayne was presumed deceased after an encounter with the alien warlord Darkseid, Dick would lead the growing Bat-Family through the uncertain waters, and eventually take on the mantle of the Batman himself, with the newly emerging Damian Wayne, the biological son of Bruce Wayne and grandson of Ra's al Ghul, as his Robin. When his mentor returned, he gladly resumed the role of Nightwing, and continues to fight crime as his own hero, but by Batman's side to the present day. If you don't talk about the men's relationships in the blurb don't talk about the women's. Further, Dick's leaving Gotham to further his relationship with Sarfire nixed whatever was starting to happen with Barbara, and they start an actual relation ship when he's in Blud Early Life Born to a long line of circus folk, Not Early Life Batman wasn't attending the circus as Bruce Wayne-- he was surveilling Tony Zucco and was trying to record footage of him trying to extort Haly. Granted, this couldn't be used as evidence, but putting it on the internet would force a GCPD investigation. So he deliberately allowed for Zucco to threaten Haly. Knowing that there would likely be some kind of sabotage, Batman took out Zucco's men one by one-- knowing that an evacuation would cause a panic and thus casualties. But Batman was too late to get to Zucco, who took it upon himself to cut the rope and kill the Graysons. Feeling that he was directly responsible for Dick's trauma that mirrored his own, Bruce took him as his ward after he had spent some time in Pinkney Orphanage. Dick Grayson doesn't fear the Joker or clowns because he grew up with them. Earl Haly never paid protection money because with his strongmen by his sides no one ever dared confront them. Enter Tony "Book" Zucco. Zucco himself had stayed in the Pinkney orphanage as a youth under the care of sister Mary Elizabeth, as Dick Grayson briefly would. Seeing his raw talent and honed capability from his life time as a top tier circus gymnast, as well as a chance to prevent the consumption by vengeance that he experienced, Batman allowed Dick to don his Robin costume to help him take down Tony Zucco. Nonetheless, Batman was cautious and instructed his ward to only take on the unarmed men and those he had already blinded with smoke bombs. When the duo cornered Zucco, Robin was bent on drawing blood, but with a little effort Batman talked him down, teaching him the valuable lesson of sharing life. Robin excelled in his performance, countering and avoiding criminals' attacks with intuitive agility and striking them with vigor. He did so well, in spite of his lack of combat training, that Batman briefly considered taking him on further missions. At the very least, he'd train him in self defense. Thought at first by the low level mobsters to be some kind of hero of his own who had joined Batman, Dick was put off when Bruce refused to take him out on more missions, feeling not only that he was capable but that his training by Bruce was a recognition of this. For a few nights, Robin would follow him on patrol, much to his anger. Struggling to find the right approach to parenting, even with Alfred's guidance, the damaged Bruce wasn't sure how to discipline the youth properly and rather than punish him in a meaningful way he unintentionally berrated him. After a particular night out in which Robin followed Batman in taking on the Joker, Batman was infuriated by Robin's actions in taking on the most dangerous super criminal in Gotham, despite his success. As a result, Bruce would grow wearly and keep a constant eye on Robin through Alfred, who had slyly let the youth loose more than once. Starro Crisis Detecting it via a ]]]]WayneTech satellite, Batman goes to investigate a meteorite that crashed in Gotham, allowing Robin to join him. They find a spore in the shape of a star. The spore latches on to Batman's face and he warns Robin to escape to the Manor. Robin tries to remove it, but another appears and he has no choice but to flee, jumping from building to building to dodge it. Having encountered another spore in Metropolis, Superman detects the Gotham spore with his super-senses and arrives to help Batman. The spore makes Batman see his most innate desire so it can feed off him, and when it's threatened it uses Batman to defend itself. Superman manages to stop him and removes the spore. The two switch their concern to Robin who has thus far avoided the second spore. After collecting both, the two senior heroes agree to form a fragile alliance, Batman suggesting they go to the Batcave to analyze it, as well as to give him the home field advantage should he have to fight Superman. They blindfold Superman and take him to the cave via that Batmobile, which he informs them doesn't have any effect on him. Despite Batman's intentions the two become almost immediately aware of each other's secret identities. When they study in the cave, one of the spores surprises them and latches on to Superman. Using the Batwing, Batman momentarily subudes Superman long enough to cut the spore off of his face. Though they don't particularly trust each other, they agree to find the rest of the spores and their origin. Also trying to solve the mystery is the secretive hero Martian Manhunter, who reaches out the retired, storied hero Wonder Woman. The martians quite admired the people of Earth and their legends and thus he's been aware of her in his time on Earth. The two teams cross paths and team up, along with The Flash, Aquaman, and Green Lantern. Using the combined cosmic knowledge of Lantern, Manhunter and Superman via Jor-El, they defeat Starro in a show down in Smallville. Bruce and Alfred agreed to strictly forbid Dick from joining him in the fight against Starro due the severity of the event. Dick is perturbed by this, but deep down he understands the reasoning. Legion of Doom After his purchase on the mall in Washington DC, Dick accompanies Bruce to the abandoned hall has he fashions the potential headquarters for his own hand selected hypothetical super team that would work better than those he worked with and help to deter them if needed. The tenative members include El Dorado, Black Vulcan, Samurai and Apache Chief. Robin pleads to have a spot on the team but Batman staunchly refuses. As the heroes find themselves encountering one another over again, they gradually warm up to one another. Batman, still weary, researches their weakensses and drafts to have them on call should they be necessary. Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Martian Manhunter get along in great form, agreeing for the most part both on practice and ideal, while the more lethal and authoritarian Aquaman and Green Lantern are hesitant. While the heroes continue to perform good deeds, one Lex Luthor lies in spiteful wait. Luthor has long been jealous of Superman, and uses gud influence to help convince the government to allow him to form a rival super-team-- The Legion... of Doom. Gathering the aid of known super criminals Black Manta, Gorilla Grodd, Braniac, Scarecrow, Riddler, Sinestro, Solomon Grundy, Cheetah, Giganta, Bizarro, Toyman, and Captain Cold. Secret plan... Joins fight against LoD against orders, bravely taking on supers, at when check point Batman recognizes there's nothing he can do to really stop this good person from helping people. Attack of Apokolips Then he creates the short term armor to fight the Apokoliptans, maybe they destroyed Krypton? Before deciding he's ready and creating the gauntlet to test him. Wonder Twins? Gauntlet A Bird Takes Flight After the attack by Darkseid, Bruce, begrudgingly, began training the boy in combat, science, and criminology. In the early missions, Bruce restrained Dick to low level crimes. Few guns, no major super villains. The likes of Crazy Quilt and Mr. Camera. During this time, Bruce gradually opened up to and because of the boy. It wasn't constant grueling that Jason would get, but rather constant supervision and caution; Bruce saw this as a chance to better himself and the boy, though with the Justice League he was still stern and distrustful. A parent is different when each child arrives, so he was cautiously optimistic with Dick, stern and callous with Jason, and Grizzled and weary with Tim early on. Bruce tried to encourage the boy. But he encouraged Robin and the Robin identity more than Dick, and that would seed a rift, especially considering it wasn't until much later that he technically adopted him. When Dick took on the Mad Hatter against Bruce's wishes, Bruce was verbally proud, but in other instances he, berated the boy for disregarding his orders. The Split At this time, Dick Grayson was operating mostly with the Titans and still using the Robin identity. He and Batman had split up after something regarding his central conflict-- he initially grew to feel that Batman had robbed him of his youth, but he still felt the need to help people and be a hero. He'd later understand that childhood was lost and Batman saved him from becoming vengeful. There were times when he wanted to live a less exhaustive regimine and do things outside of crime fighting and Batman would not allow him; he interpreted it as Batman trying to domineer over his life and force him into becoming his weapon, but he was actually doing everything he could to prevent him from turning out the same by giving him an outlet and foundation. They would later come to terms with the fact that Dick simply wouldn't want to follow the same rigorous routine, and Batman, who would at one point (before Breaking Point) be staunchly opposed, but would now be more understanding. Batman was simply trying to prevent vengeance from consuming his life by occupying it with justice but Dick saw that much occupation as consumption.